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Reader’s View: Show the carnage to stop mass shootings

I believe we as a society have insulated ourselves from the horror that gun violence inflicts by restricting explicit pictures of the aftermaths of the events. This may seem a strange position from a person who long ago gave up watching horror/slasher-type films, but I also believe the Vietnam War was shortened by the public being able to view the explicit violence and mayhem that we inflicted on others and received ourselves.

These last incidents of mass murder in the U.S. were not done by “evil,” they were done by male human beings sane enough to have weapons to inflict maximum casualty tolls.

The absence of a motive does not satisfy me in the least; it makes me more afraid. Extremist violence against religious or political ideals at least has a reason.

Maybe it is time to show the violence: the children in their own blood, the human beings torn apart by bullets. I know the first responders will never be the same again. I know I could not do their jobs. The families of the victims will never be the same. You cannot replace what is missing. It’s gone. But we as a society get a sanitized version of events through the media.

The rest of the world does not laugh at our “justice system.” The rest of the world questions our nation’s sanity for doing nothing about our “national disease” of mass murder on a military-industrial scale and our fanaticism of owning military-style weapons under the excuse of “hunting” and self-protection.

Let us show our people the result of mass shootings in detail, not just the headlines. Maybe if we get sickened, we will become awake again.